Doc Jones was trying to save the life of a young man that was brought to his office by Sheriff Gold. Shots had just been fired from the area of the jail. Pandemonium is apparent. Come with me now to those thrilling days of yesteryears with the Saga of Miles Forrest.
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Clem looked from the jail cell to the kid lying on the floor. “Lige, you killed him!”
Clem’s brother, Lige Donor was pulling the keys to the cell from the hook in the office. Within seconds he had the jail door open. “Come on Clem,” he yelled. “Let’s go.”
Clem stood there, looking back and forth from his brother to the kid. “No, I’m not going,” he barked.
“I’ve no time to argue, now come on!”
The office door burst open, Lige fired two shots at the person forcing him to back out.
Mateo and I began to run toward the jail. I soon out distanced him with his limpy leg, but stopped at the door. Mateo went to the wall between the windows. I looked at him when Charlie went bursting through the door. I tried to yell at him, but he was soon forced back out by shots. One of the bullets had hit the door frame showering Charlie with splinters some of which were embedded in the side of his face.
Charlie’s ashen face was beginning to have blood trickle down the side from the splinters. He glanced at me on the other side of the door frame. I just gave a slight shrug of my shoulders.
“Lucas!” Lucas!” yelled Charlie, with no return answer.
I tried to see through the window, but the glare was so that I couldn’t make out anything. “Mateo, can you see anything?” I asked, and received a shake of the head.
Charlie hollered again, “Lucas!” which brought another shot hitting the door.
He looked desperate and I was afraid that he was going to try to barge through the doorway again. Instead he looked my direction. “You have any brilliant ideas?”
I had been going through the lay-out of the room in my mind. Upon entering there was a little space to the left. Nothing was there. To the right set a desk, with another one next to it with an aisle down the middle going to the main office. There was no way two of us could get through the entrance without one of us being a target. The windows were barred, so we couldn’t get in that way. There was another door, but that one was kept barred from the inside.
Panic was starting to work its way onto Charlie’s face. I had never seen him like this before. I know that Lucas was Marta’s brother. . . perhaps it was that along with shooting the kid he carried into the office, but whatever it was not working him into a good frame of mind.
Looking over at Mateo, “Charlie and I are going in. I want you to fire shots through the window to draw his attention. Hopefully that will give Charlie and me a chance to get him.” He nodded, then took several steps back so that when he fired into the glass, the shards would not hit him.
Turning my attention to Charlie I said, “You go for the desk, I’ll hunker against the wall.”
Before I could nod at Mateo, Charlie hollered, “I’ll hunker against the wall,” and thrust himself into the room. Mateo started shooting when Charlie went through the door, while Charlie was firing his gun. I went in next, then to the right. We had not heard the shot, but saw two men clenched together, on the floor next to where we spotted Lucas.
Seeing Lucas lying on the floor did something to Charlie. He went up to the two men, neither of them moving, pulled back the hammer on his pistol and aimed it at them. “Charlie!” I yelled. He hesitated, kicked one of the men, I couldn’t see which, then went to check on Lucas.
The kick caused the one man to roll away from the other. Clem Donor’s eyes were wide in shock. “Lige,” he whispered, then began to weep. “Lige, I’m so sorry.”
It was then that I noticed that Lige was holding a gun, but the barrel was pointing up under his chin. His shirt was soaked with blood, and the light had gone from him. Bending down, I took the gun from the dead man’s hand, then reached over to touch Clem on the shoulder. He looked at me with tears streaming down his face. “Marshal, I done kilt my brother.”
I reached down to help him up at the same time that Charlie was picking up Lucas and rushing back out the door. Clem Donor never took his eyes from his brother as I placed him in a chair. “He came to get me out of jail. I told him I wasn’t going with him.” He paused to look at the entrance where Charlie had just departed. “I saw the kid on the floor after Lige shot him.”
Turning his eyes upon mine, he continued, but couldn’t speak for a few seconds, then added. “I jumped Lige, we fought, the gun went off.” Thrusting his face into cupped hands he began to openly weep.
Motioning for Mateo, who was standing at the entrance, to come help me. Each of us reached under the arm of Clem and lifted him from the chair and took him back to his cell. “I’ll go get Parker,” he said in a soft tone. Paul Parker was the undertaker for Durango.
When Mateo left, Clem lifted his voice, “Marshal…”